Resident Designers
Maria Mauro
Shop Maria Mauro Designs
As a child, Maria Mauro had very little spending money but yet she had a strong desire to buy material to be able to kindle her creativity to design garments. She had an innate desire to create. Maria would pick the prettiest fabrics yet not knowing how to go about with her creativity as she did not know where to turn to for guidance or anyone that could point her in the right direction.
Maria studied International Business at St. Joseph’s College and took an opportunity to study abroad her sophomore year in college. Outside of studies she took a sewing class. Yet, she never mastered the craft for she was always pulled in different directions. One thing Maria constantly enjoyed doing was crocheting, a skill that she learned from her childhood days.
Since the age of eight years old Maria has been creating stitches and when Maria became a mother, she started creating garments for her children. Maria has this incredible energy filled with love which allows her to master haute couture garments with crochet. Maria wish is to bring back a lost art and delight the eyes of the young and old while giving a one of a kind look to the person wearing her pieces.
In 2018, Maria stepped out in courage and enrolled in her first show at Chicago Fashion Week. To my surprise, she won first place in the Avante Garde Competition. On the same day of the show, a film producer who was impressed by her designs hired me on the spot to be the head stylist for a movie she was producing called Hapshetsut in California. Since then Maria has participated in several events which include Indiana Fashion Week, Midwest Fashion Week, Paris Fashion Week, and Couture New York Fashion Week.
Marias influence to design stems from the natural patterns occurring in nature and the main couture houses of France, Italy, England and America. The fashion shows that she has participated in have opened several opportunities to travel the world, including partnering with an association called Artslink with the possibility of going to St. Petersburg, Russia to collaborate with a team with the hopes of bringing back the lost art of crochet.
So far Maria has created garments of different lines including resort wear, haute couture evening dresses and wedding dresses amongst other lines of garments. Apart from showing her creativity to the world, her goal is to serve as a role model and inspire the young and old to dream, work hard, and persevere in life no matter what the circumstance. Marias personal artistic vision is to be the best crochet designer in the world and a top designer of haute couture fashion
IAMTONYLONG
CEO of FashionBar LLC
Tony Long Of FashionBar LLC very own, is a Chicago resident focused on a mission to help identify Chicago as a fashion destination. Tony D. Long acquired his Bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Management, with a Certificate in Entrepreneurship Studies from University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Tony worked for various Fortune 100 companies; such as Federal Mogul Corporation (Formerly known as FelPro Corporation), Avery Dennison, Alcan Packaging, WW Grainger, etc.
Through his 20 years of corporate experience in marketing, management, manufacturing, and distribution, Tony has successfully accomplished the opening of a manufacturing facility in Orange, France for Nestle Corporation, during his employment at Alcan Packaging. He’s implemented SAP technologies at WW Grainger, and project managed the execution of Healthcare Reform mandates and regulations at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, which was set forth by Obamacare and the US Federal Government.
After achieving a list of comprehensive corporate achievements, Tony shifted his focus to his true passion in the fashion industry, where he’s been able to launch FashionBar Chicago.
This vision to combine this corporate experience, coupled with his flair for fashion, has strengthened Tony’s own presence within the Chicago fashion industry. FashionBar Chicago continues to grow as a central source for business.
Birdy Gabkham
Entrepreneur
Birdy Gabkham is fashion force from Thailand. Birdy currently resides in Chicago, IL; as she has for the past 25+ years. At the age of 12 years old Birdy explored her own identity through picking her own outfits and clothing, which reflected her inner creativity. Birdy then entered the world of fashion through publications.
Photography and the arts have given Birdy her the vision to create unique looks. Birdy is inspired by Coco Chanel, Alexander McQueen, Comme Des Garson, and other visionary designers. Birdy’s fashion creations celebrate class and elegance, with a twist of fun construction by creating up-cycled garments. Birdy’s pieces are gender fluid, catering to both men and women.
Birdy currently resides in Lakeview’s historic Boytown neighborhood and is a staple of the local fashion scene. Birdy’s hope is create garments for fashion inspired clients and giving them the freedom to wear and live a fun and fabulous life.
Petra Poórová
FashionBar Lead of Design & Development
Petra Poorova was born and raised in Slovakia in the capital city Bratislava. She graduated from Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava in 2004 and completed her Master degree in the field of Fashion design. While studying at the Academy she also studied abroad in Germany at the University of Applied Sciences in Trier, where she had the opportunity to attend fashion design department which was focused on knitted garments.After graduation she worked from external company for a while for the worldwide clothing brand ECSADA. The experience she obtained from working with a foreign clothing company helped her to decide to establish her own company and fashion brand. She founded Petra Poórová – Fashion Studio in 2005, where she has been working until now.Currently is Petra living in Chicago where she make new experience in foreign country and fell in love with the city Chicago where she collects inspiration for a new collection and where she would like in the future present her fashion brand. Petra Poórová_Fashion Studio is focused on design and implementation of custom clothes, ready made clothes for individuals, couture dresses ,seasonal ready to wear clothes, custom clothes for companies, advertising agencies, theatre, advertisements, fairs, and music clips. She design and produces limited collections with the aim to attract a wide range of opportunities, her models are suitable for different age categories. She also designs her fabric for her clothes collections. Typical for garments from her studio is an interesting minimalistic dressmaker´s detail and playful authors printing and textile application. She focuses on the details and quality of her products and she expresses herself in her designs and apparel through symbolism, unusual graphics, and secret textile details on clothes, which you can find on different part of the clothes. In past 13 years working in her studio she has made countless amounts of custom clothes for individuals, also garments and textile accessories for big companies as KIA Motors Slovakia, FORSTINGER, DuPont, Slovak technical university in Bratislava_ Singing choirs TECHNIK and SĽUK, CITRÖEN, etc…We can find a lot of famous Slovak people and faces from TV screen among her clients – TV news anchor from Slovak TV JOJ Lucia Barmošová who was wearing clothes by Petra Poórová during ceremony OTO 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 where she obtained prize Golden OTO – /big medial event yearly in Slovakia/ in the category for TV News anchor. Her designs were featured in TV and worn also by many other TV anchors ,pop singers and indie bands,theater dancers… She has also participated in many national and international fashion exibitions, fashion shows and artists residencies in many other countries like Austria, Germany, Luxemburg, China, Finland, France, Czech republic.
Alamanni Desgins
COMING SOON
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COMING SOON